8 Ways to Score a REAL Designer Bag for 90 Percent Off

Yes, it can be done, but beware!

In college, I bought a Chloé Paddington bag on eBay for my best friend, Lee*, for around $250 — it currently retails for about $2,200. At the time, the Paddington had been the reigning "It" bag for quite awhile, but, even though the bag was still hugely popular and a big seller for Chloé, it had become a little too overexposed for some in the fashion world, who were starting to favor newer designs from Chloé and other designers.

Being college students in the small town of Poughkeepsie, New York, Lee and I were not the least bit turned off by the bag's massive popularity. Besides, only one other girl we knew of at Vassar had a Paddington bag, my friend Dana*, and she always carried hers with the lock turned toward her, so people wouldn't recognize it — completely unnecessary at a crunchy school like ours, where most of the students wouldn't know a Paddington bag from a Paddington bear.

As a result of the Paddington's mass popularity, the bag started popping up on eBay in larger and larger quantities. Most of them were fakes, but I looked carefully, did my research, and found one that I believed to be real — navy blue with brushed gold hardware and a lock so heavy you could crack a rib just by throwing it on too quickly.

I watched the auction closely without participating and during the last few minutes I shut out all the other bidders by entering incrementally larger and larger bids on over half a dozen computers in the school's art library.

When the bag arrived a few days later, there was no doubting its authenticity. The leather, the hardware, the lining, the serial number — it was the real deal, like I knew it would be. Lee's and my housemate, Tara*, couldn't believe I pulled it off and begged me to score her a Fendi Spy bag the same way.

At the time, there were almost as many Spy bags on eBay as Paddingtons, but all the ones I saw looked like fakes to me. Part of the problem was that while the Paddington was an older style, the Fendi Spy was still quite new and hard to get, so it was highly unlikely that someone would be tired of their Spy bag already and looking to sell it on eBay.

Rather than spend weeks digging through fakes, I suggested Tara set her sights on a less trendy bag, and I gave her these eight tips to help make sure she ended up with the real thing.

1. Make sure the bag has a serial number. High-end, luxury bags are individually made by hand and often have a tag with a serial number sewn into one of the pockets. Lee's Paddington had one. That said, not all brands use serial numbers — some use artisan signatures, the date of manufacture, or even microchipping, so make sure you do your research.

2. Check that the company really makes that color. Every bag comes in black, but often luxury brands create special, limited edition color ways for certain seasons or retailers. When I found Lee's navy blue bag I called the Chloé store in NYC and told them I was looking for a navy Paddington bag for my friend — leaving out that I was looking on eBay — and asked if they had any. They said they hadn't had the navy in stock for almost a year, which matched perfectly with the time line in the seller's description, which said the bag was a little over a year old.

3. Ask for extra pictures. Some people sell fake bags using real pictures, so make sure the seller you are dealing with actually has the bag in their possession by asking them to take extra pics before you place your first bid. And make sure you make specific photo requests — none of this general "Can I see more pics?" nonsense. When I was determining the authenticity of Lee's Paddington, I asked to see the back of the lock, the inside of a specific interior pocket, and both sides of the bag with the buckles undone — angles you're not likely to find in a basic Google image search.

4. Pay attention to the details. Compare the old pictures to the new ones to make sure the colors match up and that you are really looking at the same bag in every picture. Check that the logo is perfect — PRADA, not PRADO or PRAIDA. Is the stitching straight? Do all the edges match up? Is there glue residue? Is the lining the right color, texture, fabric, and print? If possible, I recommend going to a department store that sells the type of bag you're interested in and really studying it to make sure you know all the signature details that make it special. You can even ask a sales associate to tell you about the bag. If you are polite and the store isn't too busy, they should be happy to answer all your questions.

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5. Research the seller. Look into their selling history. Do they have good feedback? What are the complaints in their bad feedback? Nobody is perfect, so I'm always suspicious of someone with 100 percent positive feedback. That's not real, and I've personally had sellers try to bully me into giving them good feedback they did not deserve. I also stay away from individual sellers who are new, but have already moved large quantities of goods, especially luxury goods, in a short period of time. That's just not how real people sell their stuff. If possible, see if you can get the seller on the phone to ask them your questions directly.

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6. Be patient. There are more fakes out there than the real thing, and resale sites and stores are bursting with them. I've even spotted fakes at designer consignment stores in NYC that pride themselves on their ability to discern a fake from the real thing — and, during my early days in New York, I even sold them a few fakes myself when money was tight. If you don't see what you want right away, just wait. There's always more stuff coming.

7. Be flexible. You may be dying for black, but if the real deal comes along in green or red or navy, it might be worth going for it rather than waiting around indefinitely for a bag that may never show up. Lee wanted black or brown, but she got navy and she was really happy with it.

8. Don't confuse a high price with authenticity. You've heard the saying, "If it seems too good to be true, then it probably is," but that's not always the case. Lee's Paddington was a steal at $250. A major, major steal. But there were bags that I was sure were fakes selling for triple that amount at the same time. A bunch of ignorant people bidding on the same thing doesn't make it real. Nor does a high starting bid.

Four weeks later, Tara told me she had won a bid on a green Fendi Spy bag that she was convinced was real. I was suspicious though. I knew she had been getting frustrated by how long it was taking to find the bag, and although she talked to the seller on the phone, something about her story seemed off to me. The woman selling the bag claimed she had bought it for her daughter who decided she didn't want it, but the woman had bought it on sale and couldn't return it, which seemed highly unlikely to me and a little too complicated to be true.

A few days later, a package arrived at our house. Lee's Paddington bag came from San Francisco, but Tara's package arrived from some place in the middle of nowhere that I doubted had access to Fendi bags of any kind, let alone the newest and hottest one of all. Keep in mind this was before luxury e-commerce was a thing like it is today.

Tara opened up the box and before I even got a good look at the bag, I knew it was a fake: just the ease with which she took it out of the bag — it wasn't heavy enough — and the way it held its shape and something about the proportions just seemed off to me.

"It's not real," I said.

"What! You didn't even look at it! How do you know? You've never even seen one of these in person!" She was right; I hadn't seen one in person, only in magazines, same thing with Lee's Paddington, but I still knew it was a fake.

She reluctantly handed it over to me and I started picking it apart. "The spy case is too lightweight and the hinges look cheap. The leather is nice, but the lining is synthetic and I could probably rub the gold coloring off this cheap aluminum hardware with my thumb." I was brutal. "There's glue residue here and here, and there's a jagged little burr on the inner lip of the spy case opening. Also, I'm pretty sure this jewel here is supposed to be mother of pearl or something, not plastic. I bet it's just glued on." I started trying to pick the jewel off with my fingernail, but Tara got angry and snatched the bag away from me. She hadn't spent as much on her bag as I had on Lee's, but it was more than she'd ever spent on a single item before and she couldn't bear to think she'd been swindled.

"You should report that woman to eBay," I told her. "You need to get your money back."

"I'm not convinced it is a fake," she said. "The woman promised me it was real."

Three weeks later, the jewel fell off the spy case while she was walking home from a party. She had been too embarrassed to admit she had been taken advantage of (not that I helped on that score) and that's probably something the seller had been counting on. I didn't bother to ask if she had followed my instructions. It was obvious to me that she hadn't. Besides, it was too late then anyway.